Public interest law scholar Jana Rumminger,
L'04, completed human rights co-ops in South Africa, Sri
Lanka, and Great Britain. In London (right), Rumminger provided
research assistance to a team working on the Bloody Sunday
inquiry.

Scholar Program Advances Law School's Public Interest Mission

Patricio Rossi, L'03, the son of Peruvian immigrants,
works as a housing attorney for Neighborhood Legal Services in Lynn,
Massachusetts, where he helps low-income clients fight unlawful evictions
and keep a roof over their heads.

"Northeastern gives
clear support to its values. By reducing our debt, PILS
helps us work in public interest law without worrying how
we'll make ends meet."

Rossi credits Northeastern's Public
Interest Law Scholars (PILS) program with helping him pursue this
career. PILS supports a select group of law students who are committed
to practicing public interest law by covering three-quarters of their
tuition.

"My loan burden is about half that of my classmates,"
notes Rossi. "My wife works with the homeless in Boston, and we have
a six-month-old daughter. I don't know if I'd be able to do this without
the assistance from PILS."

Northeastern's School
of Law is nationally recognized for its commitment to public interest
law; its graduates pursue careers in this field at five times the
national average. That's an impressive number, considering the American
Bar Association reports the typical law student amasses $80,000 in
debt, and starting salaries for public interest lawyers hover around
$30,000.

Launched in 1999, the PILS program aims to attract
talented students with a passion for using the law to promote the
public good, support them financially, and demonstrate the law school's
commitment to social justice.

Through the program, notes Rossi, "Northeastern
gives clear support to its values. By reducing our debt, PILS helps
us work in public interest law without worrying how we'll make ends
meet."

To date, twenty-three women and men have benefited
from the prestigious program. They have focused their energy on such
areas as domestic violence, the environment, gay and lesbian rights,
and labor union and poverty law.

Scholar Jana Rumminger, L'04, for instance pursued
her passion for human rights law by completing three co-ops overseas
at international human rights organizations.

"I've studied and worked in South Africa, Sri Lanka,
and the United Kingdom, and at home in the United States," says Rumminger.
"The flexibility and support offered by the program has helped shaped
my understanding of what it means to be a human rights lawyer in an
ever-changing world."

"The Public Interest Law Scholars program is essential
to sustaining the law school's commitment to public interest law,"
says Dean Emily A. Spieler.

PILS was the brainchild of Nonnie S. Burnes, L'78,
an associate justice on the Massachusetts Superior Court. Burnes,
through a family fund, and the Hiatt family, through the Stride Rite
Foundation, have each contributed more than $500,000 in seed funding
for the program. Last year, Susan S. and Larry Deitch committed $1.5
million to provide critical permanent endowment for the program.

"I see the need for skilled and dedicated public
interest lawyers in my courtroom everyday, and I wanted to help Northeastern
produce more of them," says Burnes, who hosted a dinner for PILS scholars
at her home last year.